In a previous article, Rural Neighborhood v Wilderness, I briefly described how a neighborhood could turn communistic. In summary:

The busy-bodies of a community will try to force the rest of the neighborhood to pull resources, so everyone carries their dead weight. If these people are given any position of power, they will take the liberty to trespass onto your property and conduct a “safety check” or “resident survey”. That may sound innocent, but the true goal of such surveys is to spy on you to see if there’s anything valuable worth stealing^[1]. If there is anything worth taking, they will rally your most desperate neighbors into a communist uprising against you.
Everyone’s a Capitalist when times are good and they have a nice 401k, but when the SHTF, they all think it’s a grand idea to be a Commie.

Communistic fervor will sweep through your community once your neighbors realize they are ill-prepared for a long-term disaster. You must recognize that preppers are the logical target for such people and you’ll have to prepare to defend your family’s livelihood.

Don’t surrender your supplies to the communists. 

• You had foresight to be prepared for such a disaster. 
• You spent time, money, and emotional energy saving and storing your supplies. 
• You went out of your way to learn survival skills while your neighbors idled away and gossiped. 
• You were the one who endured ridicule and was branded a “hoarder” or a social deviant. 

Why should you be forced to surrender precious supplies that will be wasted on moochers who don’t have the skills necessary to survive? No community has the right to eliminate your family’s chance of survival, and you must use every opportunity to prepare for a Red Revolution.

Prepare for the Uprising

If you’re a “Prepper” or have an abundance of supplies, YOU are their target. If you think a communist uprising is inevitable in your neighborhood, your family needs to prepare using something I call the 4Ds: Dialogue, Disguise, Defense, and Deter.

Dialogue

You should participate in HOA or other community meetings, making sure to listen to the rhetoric of the so-called community leaders. The first signs of a Red Revolution start with words like “share” or “pull resources.” If you hear such things, it may be in your best interest to speak up and convince others that such proposals will be disastrous for the community. Maybe you can build a coalition of supporters large enough to snuff out the communistic rhetoric before it becomes a bigger problem.

It’s possible, but history has shown that dialogue doesn’t always dissuade a desperate group of people who are committed to a cause. Even if you’re unsuccessful in preventing a communist uprising at a committee-level, at least you know what’s coming and who your enemies are.

Disguise

If dialogue didn’t work and/or you stayed silent and aren’t well known, it’s possible your family may not be targeted… yet. Try to blend in with the rest of the neighbors and don’t do anything that draws attention to your family.

If the neighborhood is without power and you have some way to generate electricity[2], you need to use that power wisely. If you have a steady stream of power, it should be dedicated to the refrigerator and cooking food. Water pumps and electric water heaters should be fine too, and a hot shower will be good for morale (not to mention hygiene).

Don’t turn on the lights because they will light up your home like a beacon. Even small table lights will be problematic because every human on earth knows that candle or lamp-light flickers and takes time to “turn on.” A steady light or a light that turns on instantly is a dead-giveaway that you have access to electricity, and thus more resources than your neighbors.

That means you can’t use an air conditioner either. Even a window unit is loud enough to be heard blocks away in a neighborhood without power. Use a fan if you need some relief from the heat.

Also, make sure your family never brags about the supplies or equipment you have at home, not even to a boy/girl-friend[3]. It may even be a good idea to eat less than usual. Having a chubby family will stick out if everyone else in the community is starving. However, you shouldn’t starve yourself. You’ll need that extra strength and energy to work and stay healthy, and to fight off an angry mob.

Defense

Turn your home into a fortress. Get the family to help reinforce the fences around your home. If you don’t have a fence, then start building barricades to force potential intruders into choke-points. Use whatever you can find to build these defenses, even large garbage from a nearby dump.

If asked what you’re doing, say you’re making trellis for a large bean garden (or something similar). Your neighbors won’t stop you because that means they’ll have more food to mooch off or steal.

Deter

It may be necessary to defend yourself from trespassers if you catch someone conducting a “safety check” or “resident survey.” Similarly, if someone makes a verbal threat against you or your family[4], you must treat that as an actual attack and resolve it immediately. In a survival situation, you can’t afford to live in fear of when such cowards will ambush you, or worse, harm your family while you’re out working.

Such deterrence serves many purposes:

• It shows the community you won’t be a victim.
• It forces your neighbors to realize they are responsible for their own safety and gives them an idea on how to defend themselves.
• It reduces crime because would-be thieves will start thinking twice before trespassing on someone else’s property.
• It’s possible a prominent communist will be eliminated[5], which may cause the community to rethink its social agenda.

Remain an Active Member of the Community

Preparing for the worst is always a good idea, but don’t neglect the community in the process. Make it hard for the communists to vilify you and your family by being good members of the community. Little things can go a long way, so share your knowledge, participate in the neighborhood watch, or go on hunting and fishing expeditions with your neighbors. Being an active member of the community forces your neighbors to see you as a good person and makes it hard for them to believe any propaganda against your family.

Some of these people may come to your defense if the commies attack, but don’t count on it.

***

Every community has people who will be unprepared when disaster strikes. There is nothing wrong with the majority of these people, especially if they’re willing to learn and adapt to the terrible situation the community faces.

However, it’s the lazy people who are unwilling to work for the community that you’ll need to watch out for. These people will be the first to recommend the community pull its resources to support their freeloading lifestyle. If you don’t tow the party line, the same people will rally their communist sympathizers to forcibly take what you worked so hard for.

Don’t let them!

Recognize what’s happening and use the 4Ds to stay prepared.

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[1] Resident Survey: When I lived in a large apartment complex, I caught a maintenance worker inside my home “checking for water leaks.” The overly nervous worker finished his token search and left. It turned out the maintenance worker was scouting out my apartment so he could come back to steal my electronics while I was at work.

[2] Solar Panels: It’s next to impossible to hide roof-mounted solar panels and attempting to do so will only make your neighbors suspicious. They’ll wonder what you’re hiding and if you have any other resources worth taking.

[3] Teen Love: Be aware of who your teenage kids associate with. A bitch in heat (boy or girl) has loose lips and their raging hormones may inadvertently cause them to betray the family. Even a small comment to a boy/girl-friend about life at home can reveal a lot about what your family has, compared to other households. Once that information is leaked, expect a visit from the family of your kid’s love interest asking for food they know you have.

If/When that happens, assume the entire neighborhood knows your family’s inventory of goods.

[4] Verbal Threat = Actual Attack: Your neighbors may yell verbal threats against you or your family if you don’t share your resources. Hell, they may issue a threat for the tiniest bullshit. Saying something threatening in the heat of the moment may seem harmless to us in today’s society, but such threats should be taken seriously after the SHTF.

You don’t know what is going on in that person’s head or how sane that person is. Their psyche could have shattered after the SHTF causing them to be deranged. Other factors like starvation, lack of sleep, fear for oneself or family, and simply brooding on perceived inequalities could cause someone to crack and compel them to act or plot to make good on the threat.

With that said, I should remind readers of the following disclaimer.

[5] Crime/Violence Disclaimer: The author of this article and the website to which the article is published do not condone violence or the breaking of any laws, nor does the aforementioned parties support vigilante justice. The intention of this article is to educate readers on how to improve personal survivability during a theoretical disaster, and does not promote or entice anyone to steal, loot, or commit any other crime.